


A Lieutenant's Beginning

by LieutenantShield



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Artist Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner & Steve Rogers friendship, Bruce Banner & Tony Stark Friendship, Clint Barton & Steve Rogers Friendship, Gen, Hurt Bruce, Hurt Clint Barton, Hurt Loki, Hurt Natasha Romanov, Hurt Steve Rogers, Hurt Thor, Hurt Tony Stark, Protective Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Steve Rogers & Thor Friendship, Steve Rogers & Tony Stark Friendship, Steve Rogers Feels, Steve Rogers and the 21st Century, Tony Stark Has Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-30 13:20:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11464434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LieutenantShield/pseuds/LieutenantShield
Summary: Wait…that couldn’t be right… She thought, Defrost date? Pausing, thinking… The Serum saved Steve by preserving his body! “Oh, my god! I need to find the coward who decided to hide the Captain. Now!” Standing, she picked up the file and ran to the one man who could give her answers that she needed: Director Nick Fury, the bastard.





	1. Prologue

    Come on, Rogers…Keep up! A man yelled, feet pounding the ground as I run in formation. Come on, gotta do this, gotta be good… Feeling my rucksack on my back, rifle heavy in my hand, I’m gonna prove myself to everyone. I know I can do this, I can feel it!  
…  
05/29/2008  
    My name is Private Elizabeth Rogers, and I am currently 18 years old. I am about to leave for basic, like I have been planning for a while. It’s weird, I never thought that I would ever go this route. But, after Deety and Vicky left to go to their mutant school, I felt as if I should do my own part and become a U.S. Army soldier. Make them proud of me for doing my part. Though, it’s different. I feel as if this is the direction I’m supposed to go, I can feel it. I think this is going to work.  
    I really miss Deety and Vicky. I know that they are doing amazing things and becoming great leaders at their school. But, sometimes, I feel as though I never felt a part of the group after they found more friends with people like them. It’s understandable, I don’t blame them. I am glad for whatever contact I get, and it’s okay. Really, it is. We can learn to grow and maybe the next time we all get to see each other, it’ll be all worth it.  
-Elizabeth Rogers

02/15/2010  
    Hello, I’m back. I’ve been really busy these past two years, but I have some exciting news! I was chosen to be a part of a top-secret program to see if I qualify to be a super human. I don’t think I’m anything special, but I am definitely gonna prove that I can try and be the best I possibly can!  
I hope all goes well, so until later,  
-Elizabeth Rogers


	2. The Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A hero is chosen

    “Hey! Rogers!” a young man yelled, trying his hardest to catch up to Elizabeth as she stormed past. Streaming past the many soldiers who stood around her. She had been a part of this platoon for a year, since two-thousand and nine, and was kind of wishing that this program would end already. She was beginning to get very anxious that no one here would ever be picked and it was a scam for something else.  
    But, she couldn’t lose hope; so, she stopped and turned. Facing the man, hands on her hips, “What Johnson? Aren’t you supposed to be in some other formation?”  
    Johnson huffed, and combed his hand through his hair, “No, that was an hour ago. I was sent to get you and bring you to go see the General. There is someone there looking for you.”  
    Elizabeth stood shocked, why was the General asking for her? What could she have possibly done to get his attention, “Well, where am I supposed to go? Do you have any idea what he wants from me, Johnson?”  
    Johnson shrugged, and started walking, knowing Elizabeth would follow, “Dunno, but it sounds really important. Like, the chosen pick, important.”  
    Elizabeth automatically spluttered, “No, that can’t be it! I must’ve forgotten orders and now they are gonna discharge me. I’d believe that more than being the chosen one for their project!” Running to catch up, she caught his jacket sleeve, “Tell me that’s really it!”  
    “I can’t, Elizabeth, I’m sorry.” He smiled, shrugging off her hand. Smiling, and continuing on, he replied, “He must’ve been impressed when you would’ve sacrificed your life when others would have run away from a dummy bomb being thrown away. It was like you were trying to act like Captain America!”  
    “What?!” She replied, indignant; a scowl on her face, “That is not what happened. Any sane person would have seen that the weakest link should do what they can to save their platoon!”  
    “No, no they wouldn’t, Lizzy.” Johnson smile, “Face it, you’re special.” He stops and holds her still. Raising his hand, he pokes her in the middle of her chest with his index finger, “In here, you have heart. Face it, you’re special.”  
    She had to smile, “Thank you, Johnson.” Squaring her shoulders, she marched on, yelling over her shoulder, “Come on! Let’s go! I have a General to go see!”  
~ ~  
    Walking down the corridor, Elizabeth followed the group of scientists down to their lab. It has been a week since she last found out that she was chosen to become their next Super Soldier. They were really hoping that this will work, you could tell. Getting closer to the entry to the lab specifically set up for this project, she began to hear the chatter of everyone rushing to get everything done before this first procedure. This was going to be the first day of many weeks that were going to come.  
    “This way, Private Rogers.” One of the men said, guiding her to the pod that she would begin getting the serum injections. It looked like a spaceship pod. But personal sized. Nothing too fancy, just built well enough for its purpose.  
    A gentleman walked over and with him was Johnson. He was her escort, or ‘battle buddy’ to this project, “Are you ready, Private Rogers?”  
    “Yes, no going back now, sir.” She replied, smiling at them; barely concealing her general excitement.  
Johnson smirked, holding out clothes to her, “I’m afraid, we are going to have to ask you to remove everything except for this tank top and shorts, my friend.”  
“All right, no problem, Johnson.” She smiled back, before casually changing into the new outfit, “So, the procedure shouldn’t be so bad, right?”  
“We expect it to go well, since we aren’t going to give you all one-hundred percent in one go. See what results we get.” The scientist answered with a gentle smile, “We can assure you the second anything goes a miss, we will make sure you are the priority and remove you from the pod.”  
“Thank you, sir,” Elizabeth smiled, pulling her shirt over her shoulders, “for your honesty.”  
“No problem, Private.” He smiled before leaving her behind with Johnson.  
“You’re gonna do great, kid.” Johnson smiled, fist bumping her shoulder, “Gonna break hearts.”  
“Or limbs…” She muttered, grinning. This was nothing she thought would ever happen to her. But, she will take whatever blessing she can get.  
~ ~  
They had been walking for hours before Deety finally had to stop and rest for a moment. She had been hiking with her friend Victoria for hours, all because someone at Xavier’s said that there was a great meditation spot to go see. So, her, being the sucker, had to go and check it out and wherever she went, Vicky was sure to follow.  
She has been getting better at her powers more, and finding her limits. It was peaceful. But, it was days like these that made her and Vicky miss their friend, Elizabeth. They haven’t gotten to talk to her so much since they came to Xavier’s school, and Elizabeth, the military, two years ago. Their adventure today led them, again, to think about her.  
“You know, Elizabeth would have loved to go on this hike with us.” Deety said, wiping her brow with the back of her hand before taking her backpack off to get out her water bottle.  
“Yeah, it’s a shame that we haven’t had the chance to talk to her a lot.” Vicky replied, sitting next to Deety and removing her pack as well, “If we didn’t have to be here so much, we definitely could have gone on a hike like this somewhere even nicer.”  
“Yeah, you’re right.” Deety smiled, placing the bottle back in her pack. She stood and wiped her hands on her pants, “At least we will all have stories our adventures to tell each other when we see her next. I hope she hasn’t been getting into too much trouble.”  
Vicky, following suite, stood as well and began walking the path again, “Yeah, she always did have a knack for getting into trouble when she’s by herself.”  
~ ~  
    Standing in the crowd, Elizabeth stood proud and center as she watched the head of the project give a happy speech about how well the project had went, and that this final occasion will be the fruit of all success in creating their super soldier. But what Elizabeth had never shown them, was that she had learned she could “adjust” to how much serum she could use.  
    It was after the first test when she found herself standing, at six feet and one-hundred eighty pounds, in her private room when she realized that she could shrink back. After giving herself a shock, she was half tempted to go and tell someone. But, something told her to hold that information back. Even though she knew she could trust them, her instincts had told her otherwise. Especially after every week she would get more of the serum. She could feel it thrumming in her veins, and wondered if her friends could ever truly handle what she signed up to do. She will take this and run with it, but she will not try to contact them after this is all over. Elizabeth didn’t want to have them end up on the government's patrol.  
    But now, she had a program to finish. After this, she was to be sent to S.H.E.I.L.D. in New York for more training. More people to teach her to reach her full potential and begin to integrate her to working for a S.T.R.I.K.E. team. So, sitting in the pod for the last time, she allowed herself to let this all sink in, and hope that this would end up all right in the end.


	3. Saving Steve Rogers

    Tap. Tap, tap, tap. Urgh. Tap, tap, tap. Flipping through the new records she was supposed to be studying, Elizabeth was getting rather bored. She was looking through past mission reports and leader files, mostly to teach her how a real leader acts probably. Pulling out the next file, she nearly dies of shock. It was the file for the famous Captain America: The Legend.  
    She carefully rests a hand on top of the folder, as if she was caressing the pages, whispering, “Is this for real…?” Moving to open the cover, the first thing she sees is a picture of Steve Rogers in his army uniform. “Oh, my gosh…this can’t be happening. Coulson obviously has no idea that I have this file. He would never let this out of his sight…”

Profile:  
  Name: Steven Joseph Rogers  
  Rank: Captain  
  Age: 25 years old  
    Birth Date: July 18, 1920  
        Alias: July 4, 1920  
    Death Date: January 22, 1945  
    Defrost Date: March 30, 2012

    Wait…that couldn’t be right… She thought, Defrost date? Pausing, thinking… The Serum saved Steve by preserving his body! “Oh, my god! I need to find the coward who decided to hide the Captain. Now!” Standing, she picked up the file and ran to the one man who could give her answers that she needed: Director Nick Fury, the bastard.  
~ ~  
    “You can’t be serious!” Elizabeth yelled frustrated, flipping her hands away from herself. Usually she wouldn’t be this upset over something, preferring to keep calm in the face of a problem. But this was no small problem. This was dealing with another human who probably needed help.  
    Fury looked very unimpressed by her attitude, but was proud of her concern. He could use this to his advantage, “Yes, yes I am, Rogers. He is in one of our safest safe houses, with all the materials he needs to succeed in this new generation.”  
    Sighing, and crossing her arms across her chest, “Tell me how he found out, Fury. How did he wake up? Were you straightforward, or did you try to ‘ease’ him into it?”  
    “We had him in a sanctioned room, set to be designed as what a hospital in the forties would be styled.” Was his answer, giving her a stupid smirk. Brittany let that information sit for a second.  
    “You mean to tell me…” She narrowed her eyes, “That you tried to lie to a man who is capable of seeing through deceit? Who could smash his way through that façade and run off?”  
    “Oh, he did get out. Found himself in the middle of the street in the center of New York City.”  
    “You really did the stupid thing here…” Elizabeth replied, angrily, leaning against the wall. “That was not the right way to do this, sir, and you knew that. You just didn’t care. Where is he? I want to go check on him myself. I don’t want to see him isolating himself. I want to be there to help him. He deserves to have a friend here in this crazy world. Or did you think that he doesn’t need social interaction. He is probably out there right now, trying to get his frustration out or sitting in silence; and that is not acceptable, sir.”  
~ ~  
    One, two, one, two, one, two… He quickly punches into the one of many punching bags that he had lined up in succession.  
    There’s not enough time! I gotta put her in the water! Rage began to fill his head, it was getting harder and harder to stop the quick punches.  
    You won’t be alone… He wishes these flashbacks would just stop, leave him alone enough to sleep. Flashes of Red Skull raising the Tesseract in his hand. Bucky falling because of him.  
    Oh my god! This guy is still alive! Punch, punch, swing, punch. Over and over again, feeling the pain in his hands. Hoping it grounded him, like he had to do every night. Steve felt as if he was going to go crazy. It won’t ever stop, he can never breathe right.  
    “Shouldn’t you be out, celebrating, seeing the world?” Steve stopped and turned around. Seeing Fury standing in the doorway, he just scowled and moved to turn back to his punching bag.  
    “Don’t see much of the point of celebrating, if there is no one to celebrate with.” Steve replied, preparing himself for the first hit of the bag.  
    “That’s why I came and brought you a friend. She’s like you, Cap.” Fury replied with a smirk, “Attitude, spirit, temperament…Super-serumed.”  
    Steve froze, not believing what he just heard; turning to face the older man, “No, they couldn’t have found the formula for Erskine…”  
    “Oh, no, they didn’t. But we found someone who had something close to it. She is just like you, Rogers. And she nearly busted one of my balls when she found out about you.”  
    That caused a little smirk to appear on Steve’s face, “Really? So, if she really exists, where is she now if she’s really here?”  
    “Lieutenant.” Fury called out, and from behind him came a young woman who couldn’t be any older than him. Standing at five foot five, tall and proud; she looked very strong indeed.  
    “Hello, Captain Rogers, it’s a genuine pleasure to meet you.” She said, her lips lifting into a smile. Leg twitching as if she wanted to move closer, but wasn’t sure if she was allowed too. “I’m Lieutenant Rogers.”  
    That shocked him to the core. Did the scientists from his original project keep any of his DNA for this? Was this from HYDRA? “Your last name…is Rogers, mam?”  
    “Oh no! No, sir, it’s not what you think!” Elizabeth rushed to assure him, raising her hands to shoulder height, “I had it changed legally before I joined the army. I totally forgot that you might think I’m related, I promise no one has any DNA from you, Captain.”  
    Steve instantly felt relieved at that, “Oh, okay. That’s good. Not that that would have been a bad thing, mam. But, I wouldn’t exactly like the idea of people using it in that way.”  
    “I understand, sir.” Elizabeth smiled, then noticed the bags under his eyes; she asked him, concerned, “I’m sorry if you don’t like me asking, but, haven’t you been getting any sleep? You look dead tired.” Steve found himself shocked that anyone would notice that, and neither of them had noticed that after seeing how well they were getting along, Fury had left the building to go back to Shield.  
    “I’m fine, I’ve slept for seventy years. I think I’ve had all the sleep I’m allowed to get, mam.” He replied, sheepishly. Deciding that he wasn’t going to get any more time in the gym tonight.  
    “Well, I’m a super soldier, as well, sir,” She rested her fists on her hips, giving him a look that said that she wouldn’t let this slide, “and I find that even though I can do days without sleep. I find I still need it, if I want to stay sane, that is.”  
    “Well, you find a good way and I’ll sleep more. Until then, I just have to deal with random adrenaline rushes.” Steve replied, a little frustrated.  
    “Have you tried watching Disney?” She suggested with a shrug of her shoulders. Coyly leaning against the doorframe. “Or do you just automatically come here after you have nightmares?”  
    “What nightmares? And Disney? They’re still around?” Steve asked, casually trying to change the subject, while generally interested about Disney.  
    “Yes, nightmares. sir, it’s easy to see, at least for me. You don’t have to hide it. We all get nightmares, some worse than others.” Smiling, she waved for him to come closer, “And there are so many Disney movies today. You want to go watch some? We can go to my apartment and watch a couple.”  
    Steve smiled what he felt was his first real smile in this century, “That would be great, mam. But, I have one request.”  
    “Anything, sir.” She smiled, moving away from the doorframe, preparing herself to leave the room.  
    “You have to call me Steve. None of this: sir, Captain, or Rogers business.” He replied, moving to remove the wraps from his hands and pack his bag up.  
    “Of course! I thought that you’d prefer me to call you that until said otherwise. But I have a condition of my own, Steve.” Elizabeth said with a smirk appearing on her face. Happy that she seemed to be headed in the right direction. She really hoped she could help him, it’s the least she could do for him. It was here that she really saw the young man he was, and not the mask of the hero in front.  
    “What would that be?” He smirked, lifted the bag onto his shoulder and walked over to her.  
    “You must never call me mam. You must either call me Elizabeth or Rogers. Nothing more, nothing less.” Moving to walk out the door, Steve following behind.  
    “So…where do you live, Elizabeth?” Steve inquired, finding that learning about her was peaking his interest. She seemed like she had a lot on her shoulders as well. Maybe, they could benefit from this arrangement.  
    “I live in Jersey.” Was all she said, as if waiting for a reaction. Steve quickly halted his steps.  
    “Are you being serious? Elizabeth, please tell me you don’t actually live in Jersey…” Steve pleaded, his eyes turning the prettiest of blues.  
    “No, I’m sorry. I had to do it. I actually live here in Brooklyn.” She could barely conceal her humor, her eyes alight with laughter.  
    “Oh! That is such a relief!” He exclaimed, raising a hand to his heart, “You can’t joke around like that with an old man, Elizabeth.”  
    “Ha! You, an old man?” Elizabeth exclaimed, her laughter causing color to rise up in her cheeks. “I like you, I think I’m gonna keep you, Steve.”  
    “You think you can just steal an old relic, Elizabeth?” He answered, happy that someone actually wanted to hang out with him for him, and not because of his alter ego. He liked this feeling.  
    “Of course! I can kick all their butts to steal you away from them all! No one can get in our way, Steve.” Elizabeth exclaimed into the night air as she led Steve outside. “Oh crap, farts and pickle juice!”  
    Steve was silent before he asked, “Anything wrong, Elizabeth?” Moving to lay a hand gently on her shoulder.  
    “I forgot that I didn’t drive here. So, we’re gonna have to take a bus, and I really don’t like the buses around here…” Elizabeth replied, deflating a little at her unpreparedness.  
    “Hey, it’s okay, I actually drove my bike here.” He replied as he started walking across the street, heading towards where an older Harley cycle stood.  
    “Steve, we aren’t going to fit on your bike. It’s okay, I can walk with you. We aren’t too far from where I live, actually…” Elizabeth prattled on as Steve just hops onto his bike and turns it on; revving up the engine. Making her stop and stare at him in shock, before excitement crept in and a grin split across her face. “Oh, we are going to be such great friends, Steve! I just know it!”  
~ ~  
    Chim chiminy, chim chiminy chim chim cheroo. I does what I likes and I likes… what I do. Hello, art lovers… This song was one of her favorites from Mary Poppins, Bert was one of her favorite characters in this film.  
The song was about to start when she felt Steve’s head slide to rest on her shoulder, completely asleep. Elizabeth smiled at him, before using her strength to gently move him to where his head was on her lap and moving his legs onto the couch. Then, reaching for the afghan from on the back of her couch, she draped it over him and just continued to watch the movie. Running her fingers gently through his blonde locks and just marveling at the peaceful atmosphere that she was surrounded in. If that meant she was up all night, movie after movie (still Disney), making sure he slept alright. Then she would do just that.


End file.
